Back to Reality…

I guess it had to happen eventually, but today is the day.  I’m heading back to CU today for the first time in a month. Classes start tomorrow (and mine start on Wednesday), but I have some prep work I must get done…so today is the day.  Truth be told, I’m not exactly looking forward to it.  Last year, Spring Semester was one of the worst teaching experiences I’ve ever had.  I was actuallly ready to just quit in the middle of the semester, just call in and tell them I was never coming back.  Of course, I didn’t do that, and God was more than faithful to get me through.  And it is highly unlikely that this term will be anywhere near as bad as last year since there were other factors at work last year on top of a difficult group of students, but still the memories are quite vivid.

Enough whining, however, because there is no turning back now.  And besides, I can’t hold this group of students responsible for last year’s problem-children.  Truth is, I’m discovering that fear has become, over the years, one of my primary motivations for decisions and life.  And it’s not a very good or effective motivation.  God has been teaching me to recognize such moments and deal with them appropriately, since “perfect love casts out fear.”  It’s not an easy lesson, but it’s been amazingly freeing.  So I suspect that this term will be a lesson in watching God’s grace and love work themselves out in my life.  And, of course, I could use your prayers, if you think of it…

The weekend wasn’t too overwhelming.  We watched a few episodes of MacGyver (which Eric got for Christmas) and Toy Story.  I finished HP Book 5…it’s much better than I remembered it being, really.  I didn’t like it the first time, but it made much more sense in the re-reading!  Eric and I ran around on Saturday.  Our goal was to buy something, but we were not specific about what.  We went to all the stores to which we had gift cards from Christmas (Lowe’s, Target, Borders and B & N) as well as Cord Camera and a whole string of furniture stores.  After 5 hours…we had bought one book.  Well, at least we met our goal!  And it was fun to just hang out together and shop. 

Other than that, I did laundry, ironed, made meals, and generally tidied up the house.  Nothing too exciting, but a relaxing weekend, which is always nice!